By DebbieH 01 Jul 2019 3 min read

How to write an electrical engineer CV

 

Whether you’re applying for your first ever aviation electrical engineering job or are simply looking for some guidance on creating a stand-out CV, we’ve analysed some of the best electrical engineer CVs around to give you the most essential information you need to succeed. 

Never underestimate the power of your CV. Not only does it win you a vital interview, it also gives the recruiter an insight into what kind of employee you will make. 

Use these pointers to help write an electrical engineering CV that outperforms all of the other applicants:

 

Begin by defining your CV structure

Starting your CV can often be the hardest part, leading you to put off writing altogether until the last minute and resulting in a lower quality document.

If you begin by defining your CV structure, you should find that filling in the different sections becomes easier, simply because you’re working to a template.
 

A basic structure should include:

  • Contact Details
  • Profile
  • Core Skills
  • Work Experience (including responsibilities and achievements) 
  • Education and Qualifications
  • Interests (optional)

Feel free to copy and paste these to give you a starting point.

 

Optimise for impact 

Recruiters are highly likely to skim-read your CV in the first instance – after all, they could have several hundreds of applications for the role! Therefore, the key is to optimise your CV for impact, so that even if a recruiter spends a mere 10 seconds scanning your application, they’re able to pick out your most valuable assets.

Format your core skills section into a bullet pointed list to make them pop out during the skim-read. A powerful profile section at very top of the document will help to capture the recruiter’s attention, so use this section to highlight your best achievements and most impressive and relevant skills for the job. 

Be specific in terms of the specific electrical engineering experience that you have by describing your relevant responsibilities in previous projects – whether that’s experience of the development of electrical hardware, project control and monitoring or application of design software. This way, you’ll allow recruiters to pick up on your tangible experience with ease.

 

Focus on relevancy

If you have a lot of experience in the civil engineering field, the biggest challenge can be keeping to the recommended CV length. Ideally, a CV should be two pages long – anything longer than this can be highly off-putting to recruiters. 

You may have to be quite ruthless in the content that you include. Giving every detail of every job you’ve ever had will take up space that you could be putting to greater use. Take a good look at the job requirements and focus on including information which proves that you can carry out the role.

Ultimately, every detail in your CV should be relevant to the job you’re applying for.

 

Provide evidence of your skills

All recruiters like to see that skills can be backed up with facts and figures – but this is even more so the case with engineers, who are generally very mathematically orientated.

Engineering recruiters will be more impressed with statements that include figures. For example:

 

  • Delivered Project A in xxxx weeks.
  • Introduced a system which saved xxx hours of work per week.
  • Reduced energy output by xxxx.

Always quantify your skills to make them more powerful. Loose, generic statements with no evidence behind them generally lack impact.

Follow these 4 key steps and you’ll sure to create a highly effective electrical engineering CV.

 

 

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